The InterActive Organisation

Harrison Owen hhowen at comcast.net
Tue Feb 24 07:03:36 PST 2004


Michael -- this looks like a great adventure. Wish I could join you all
in person. But failing that, here are some thoughts you might want to
kick around. In my own practice, I find it useful to start from the
position (at least in my own mind) that the client is already there, but
just doesn't recognize their true situation. This start point makes a
major difference in terms of how hard I have to work, and what needs to
be done. If the client is "already there" there is no need for me (or
us) to design an InterActive Organization, or even implement somebody
else's design. Simultaneously, I can say to the client -- Look, this is
not about doing something new and radical. It is really about being
fully and intentionally what you already are. Enabling the client to
achieve this awareness is all about engaging in a process of
appreciative inquiry (small "a", small "I") or maybe formally "doing"
AI??? So -- "Let's look at what works, and how it really works." The
ensuing dialogue can go all over the place, but it usually covers the
following sorts of stuff -- Starting with the organizational chart.

Everybody knows of course that the organization is a steeply ranked
hierarchy -- with all control clearly centered at the top, and in the
hands of the Senior person (CEO, MD, Director) And we know that, because
that is the picture we have in our minds or framed on the wall. And yet,
if you push a little bit, it turns out that little if anything actually
works the way the picture says it should. Good ideas come from all over
the place, projects are initiated from the "Skunk works" that don't even
show up on the Org Chart. Most of all, it turns out that if all command
and control is actually held by that single, almighty MD/CEO, the
organization is but a short step away from death by organizational
hardening of the arteries. Come the next shift in the environment (large
or small) -- the rigid face of things just cracks. The nasty secret is
that real work, really gets done interactively -- despite our best
efforts to the contrary. So it might seem that we are working much too
hard to fix something that ain't broke. We simply have to get out of its
way so that it can easily do what it does naturally. Or something ???

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html



-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Pannwitz, Michael M
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 4:59 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: The InterActive Organisation

Dear colleagues,
Hans Georg Wicke, Jo Toepfer and I are planning a three day
international workshop (using os-technology) on "The InterActive
Organisation" (also called the os-org).
We are interested in
-further developing our practical approaches,
-the exchange among practitioners in this particular field
-in discussing perspectives and strategies for our day-to-day
practice on the road towards the InterActive/os-Organisation.
If you are working in an organisation (private, public,
not-for-profit, NGOs) that is moving towards the InterActive
Organisation using os-technology in the process, contact us.
Or if you are an os-practitioner specifically working in such
processes, contact us.
Interested? Want to be part of this?
Send a note to Jo Toepfer
jotoepfer at boscop.de
We will be in touch regarding further planning for the workshop.
Also, please send us names/contacts of organisations and
os-practitioners that are active in the field described above and who
should participate in the workshop.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html



More information about the OSList mailing list